


lucy in the sky with diamonds

by bookishgypsy



Category: Dynasty (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Lucy Lowden
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:08:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24273337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookishgypsy/pseuds/bookishgypsy
Summary: A collection of one-shots and drabbles circling around Liam’s sister, Lucy Lowden.
Relationships: Fallon Carrington/Liam Ridley
Comments: 10
Kudos: 42





	1. family is family

**Author's Note:**

> Since the show refuses to give us any more Van Kirks... 
> 
> Along with the help of Carolina, we've created Liam's sister, Lucy. Planning on turning this into a collection of one-shots that integrates her back into Liam's life, as well as Fallon's. Since we'll be without new episodes for a long while, hopefully it's a fun hiatus project for everyone to enjoy. And, I hope you all adore Lucy as much as I do.

“Allison!”

Fallon Carrington storms into her Fallon Unlimited headquarters that Thursday morning, after being welcomed with the worst news she could have anticipated from the pitch she sent out weeks ago. It was cloudy and grey out; rain was in the forecast for later in the day, along with the potential for severe thunderstorms, which couldn’t match her current mood more perfectly. Her Christian Louboutin’s click loudly against the hard floors as she makes her way around the corner, spotting her assistant standing up from her seat immediately at the sight of her.

“Is there any particular reason why I’m looking at an email from you that says I’ve been _denied_ the streaming rights for that _The Girls_ movie?”

“Well,” Allison tiptoes around her words, as Fallon drops her purse at her desk, letting her iPhone sit comfortably against the wooden piece of furniture. She crosses her arms across her chest impatiently, waiting for Allison to continue speaking and explain her words further, but she just sits there with wide eyes and a skittish look on her face.

“Well? And? Spit it out!”

“Oh!” Allison jumps slightly in her place, no doubt taken back by the volume of Fallon’s words. It’s not like she means to escalate her tone so quickly, it just happens; it’s just in her nature. “Well, actually, they rejected your offer.”

Fallon allows herself to take a deep breath, four counts in and six reps out; she repeats that process a few times before she lets herself speak again. “What do you mean they _rejected_ my offer _?_ ”

“They said they didn’t want to sell their streaming rights to Fallon Unlimited just yet,” her assistant says quickly, allowing no room for a breath between words. “They wanted to look elsewhere first,” she continues, speaking faster than her previous statement, which Fallon didn’t even think was possible. “Since the movie is only just starting production, they wanted to wait it out a little longer before they made a final decision.”

She slips her next words out with gritted teeth, patience already wearing thin. “ _Why?”_

“I think they’re probably going to look at other options?” Allison’s words sound more like a question than an answer, only limiting Fallon’s tolerance further. Fallon keeps pacing herself back and forth in her office, round and round and round again, the only sound echoing through the room coming from the clicking of her high heels against the hard floor. “Like Hulu and Netflix, maybe.”

“No, Allison,” she says through clenched teeth, stopping in before her desk to stand directly in front of the much more timid girl she called her assistant. “Why would they deny _me?_ ” She breaths the words out low and slow, trying to keep in control of her composure as she spins back around to her desk. “They don’t need to wait to know that I’m their best option.”

“Ms. Carrington,” she hears Allison say from behind her.

Fallon finds herself spinning back around to the brunette with glasses again, interrupting whatever she was about to say. “I have the _fastest_ growing streaming service in the entire world.”

“Well, Europe,” Allison says, index finger pointing up in the air to correct her. “Spain, actually.”

“They would be _stupid_ to pass on this offer, Allison!” She walks to the couch in the corner of her office, turning right back round and ending up where she started once again. She walks the same path five more times before stopping in front of the sofa and speaking again. “Alright, well, we up our amount then. How much did they want?” She spins back around and walks towards her desk, picking up her purse and pulling out her check book. “What was their counter offer?”

“There was no counter offer,” she hears her assistant say softly. “They weren’t ready to make a decision this early into the process.”

“ _What?”_ Fallon shrieks, Allison stepping back a few steps when she moves forward towards the girl. “Allison, that doesn’t even make sense. They’re either looking at other options, or they’re not ready to make a decision. Which is it?”

“Fine, okay,” Allison begins, defeat weighing in and finally showing in her eyes. “I took the call this morning and was informed that in order for it to go to you, all members of production had to sign off on it,” she states. “And there was _one_ who didn’t.”

She seethes her next words out, “ _Who?”_

“The screenwriter,” Allison squeaks out. “Who also happens to be the director,” she adds another tick to the box. “And…one of the executive producers.”

“Well,” Fallon pauses, shifting her weight from her left to right foot. “Well, then I want to have a meeting with this…executive producer, director, screenwriter person.”

“I asked for one.” Allison tinkers with her words, already ahead of the game; which, good, she was paid enough to think ahead of the game like this anyways. “They denied.”

She doesn’t accept the denial on her proposal to stream the movie on Fallon Unlimited exclusively. She doesn’t accept that there’s _one_ singular person on the team that refuses to even entertain the thought of this movie going to Fallon Unlimited. She doesn’t accept the fact that this _person_ denied a face to face conversation with her.

_No one_ says no to Fallon Carrington. 

“This movie is getting Oscar buzz, Allison, and I’ll be _damned_ if I’m not the one who gets it.” Fallon lets herself take a breath, breathing in and out and in and out, the air returning to her lungs and her heart rate slowing down after a brief moment of anger. She places her hands against her hips before turning to Allison once more. “I _need_ that meeting.”

“I know, Ms. Carrington, but I tried. They were really adamant with the fact that a meeting wasn’t going to happen,” Allison responds curtly. “I really think it’s best if we just wait this one out until she’s ready.”

“ _She?”_ She does a double take because that is not what she was expecting to hear. She figured it was a man who thought he was too high on his britches and better than a female CEO of her own streaming service for his movie to go to her. “Who does she think she is?”

“It’s Lucy Collins!” Allison’s face lights up when she says the name of the director aloud. “She’s one of the most talked about up and comer directors in Hollywood!”

“Okay, calm down,” Fallon holds her hand up in an attempt to tell Allison to stop talking. “Let’s take that excitement to an internet fan account or something? Not to me. Okay? Great.” 

Fallon spins her body around, finally finding comfort in her chair behind her desk. She rests her head in her hands for a moment, hopefully easing the ongoing headache she already felt coming on. It was only 8:13AM and her day had already started out _so_ poorly; she was really counting on that deal to go through with the movie to really let Fallon Unlimited take off in the states, the thing she’s been set out to do since launching this whole streaming service to begin with. She wanted to compete with the best of the best and she wanted to come out _on top._

She _would_ come out on top.

When she pulls her head up from the darkness of her palms, she finds Allison still standing above her. She pushes her hand up to shoo the girl away, “Okay, you can go back to work now.”

She watches as Allison sinks back to her own desk, sulking as she sits in her chair and focuses on the computer screen in front of her again. Fallon shakes her head, eyes rolling back at the girls antics before focusing back on her own iMac screen. She pulls up her emails first, finding entirely too many for her to focus on when the only thing she could currently concentrate on was getting that movie onto her streaming platform. 

So, she opens the Safari app, heading to Google and typing the movie title in to do some digging on it. What comes up first is a local news article about how it was filming in Atlanta. Well, that was incredibly convenient for her. She must have been extra good that month for an opportunity like that to fall into her lap. And more specifically, it was filming at the studio she was pretty sure was right down the street from her office. 

“Hey, Allison?”

“Yes?” Allison’s voice echos through the distance between them. 

“Isn’t Eagle Rock Studios just down the road from here?”

“Yeah,” she replies without looking up from her screen. “About two minutes east of here.”

“Great, I’ll be leaving the office for a little.” She stands herself up, slinging her purse over her shoulder and grabbing her keys off her desk before starting to walk towards Allison’s desk. “You can handle this for an hour or so, right?”

Allison’s face looks up at her then as she hovers above her assistants desk. “You’re not going to go down there you?” 

“No, I would never,” she says with a straight face that was easier to accomplish that she’d like to admit. 

“Fallon!”

“I’m just gonna have a nice little chat with Ms. Lucy Collins, that’s all,” Fallon shrugs, making her way through the archway to exit the room. Behind her shoulder she yells out, “No need to worry.”

“Should I call Liam?” She hears Allison’s voice echo in the distance as she gets further and further away from the girl. “I feel like I should call Liam.”

“What Liam doesn’t know what hurt him, Allison.”

* * *

She takes an Uber to Eagle Rock, because she’s smart enough to know that there’s going to be a security guard checking people in at the gate, so she avoids one obstacle in this plan of hers by telling her driver to drop her off at the Wendy’s across the street. She crosses the busy road as fast as she can in her tall heels, staying clear out of the guards eyesight she can see just up ahead at the entrance to the studio. 

It doesn’t take her long to realize that the only hiccup in her plan with security is that there wasn’t just the one guard sitting in the booth at the entrance to the studio. No, there was _far_ more security guards lingering inside, hanging by what seemed like just about every doorway into the large building; all of them wearing the same boring, beige uniform. She supposes that the quick Plan A she’d formed in the Uber of just sneaking through some bushes to avoid the guard at the gate wasn’t going to be feasible.

So, she moves to Plan B. 

She stumbles up the roadway that allows traffic in and out of the place, watching as the security guard inside the booth looks at her with an odd expression on his face through the glass. He steps out when she gets closer, making his presence known to her as she tries to stumble into the place.

“Miss, you can’t enter this place without a badge,” he mutters. “And to get a badge you need to be on the guest list.”

“I know, I know,” she moves the last few steps up to the guard in the beige uniform. “It’s just...my sister is in town shooting a film and I really wanted to surprise her!” The guard, whose last name appears to be Mitchell according to his name tag. “We haven’t seen each other in years and I really, really wanted to come see her without her knowing I’m here! Please, sir, can’t you just let me in and we’ll pretend this conversation never happened?” 

He eyes her suspiciously, lips pursed together as he tries to process her words, trying to decide if he believes her story. It’s clear he doesn’t, but he’s at least pretending to entertain her bullshit lies for a moment. 

“Okay, so, I’ll take that as a no.” Her purse falls down and pools around at her wrist as she steps a few steps closer to the guard. “What about...a thousand dollars and you pretend you never saw me?” The guard crosses his arms across his chest, head tilting towards the left at her lowball offer. “Fine. Two thousand?”

“Five thousand and I never even saw you.”

“You drive a hard bargain, Mitchell.” She whips her purse out and writes the check, signing her signature scrawl on the proper line before ripping it out of the booklet and handing it to him. She points her finger at him before letting him take the piece of paper from her grasp. “You never saw me.” She makes it only two steps forward before regressing back two steps again. “So, could I get a visitors pass, too, so I can actually get in? Without being suspicious?”

* * *

She makes it into Eagle Rock without any trouble, thanks to the cheap sticker on her chest that said _visitor_ in bright red letters, which ironically cost her five thousand dollars. She asks another guard at the door what soundstage _The Girls_ is shooting at, and thanks to her handy dandy visitors pass, he directs her into the right direction without any questions asked. 

Fallon makes her way through the sets, which if she says so herself are a little tacky, but that was beside the point. And probably wouldn’t get her the movie rights if she made a comment like that to the director of the film, the person who would have had the biggest say in how any of these set designs even looked. She keeps moving through the hallways, wandering toward the sound of voices coming from the end of the path she was on, until she stumbles into two actors rehearsing in what looked like an outside set. There’s a blonde behind a camera watching the view finder, as she directors another man on the set to put blocking tape down in a specific location. 

Bingo.

But that’s when the blonde with wavy hair falling against her back looks up and behind her, noticing her awkward and obviously unwanted presence. 

Shit. 

“Can I help you?”

“Hi, hello,” she moves her hand up awkwardly to wave at the cast and crew. “Sorry to interrupt, I was just wondering if I could speak with you,” she points at the director whose eyes are baffled with confusion. “Alone.”

“Alright, everyone, take five,” she says directly to her co-workers. “Who the hell are you?”

“Hi, Fallon Carrington,” Fallon says moving her hand up for Lucy to shake. The blonde only crosses her arms across her chest in response. “No? Okay. Look, I just wanted to come down here and ask you face to face to please consider Fallon Unlimited to be the streaming home for this movie.”

“You really are just as batshit crazy as they say you are, aren’t you?”

“Well, I’m not sure _crazy_ is the right word in this situation.” Her shoulders scrunch up in a shrug, stepping a few feet closer to the blue-eyed blonde in front of her, only for her to take a step back at the notion. “I like to think of it more as determined. And dedicated to my cause. Which, right now, is my company getting _you_ to let your movie make its streaming home on Fallon Unlimited.”

“Right,” she drawls out, unreadable; which irks Fallon to _no_ end because she could _always_ read others thoughts and actions, or how they’re feeling, even. She could always use that to her advantage to flip the conversation to make sure _she_ had the upper hand. But Lucy Collins? Nothing. It makes her feel like she’s not the one in control here and she _hates_ that. Fallon Carrington was _always_ in control. “So… _Fallon,_ was it? Can I ask what you’re doing on my set?”

“Well...” she trails off before she realizes what she’d just said. “Wait, you know who I am?”

“Of course I know who you are,” she says eyes rolling back. “Your 45 page document outlining why I should pick you to be the streaming service for this film came with a 4 page biography about yourself _and_ your company. You were even kind enough to include a few portraits of yourself,” she says. “Which by the way, was totally unnecessary.”

“Well, I feel as if you might need to read it again,” she says with all the confidence she can muster up and her best smile plastered across her face, lips pursing as she tries to control her emotions getting the better of her. “And when you do, you will see that Fallon Unlimited is the best option for this movie.”

“You don’t take no for an answer that well, do you?”

“It’s mostly because I _refuse_ to accept no as an answer.” Fallon continues putting on the best smile she can. “Which is why you could save us both some time and just say yes now.”

“How did you even get in here?” Lucy’s arms are still crossed across her chest, completely unfazed with everything as she just stares at Fallon with the most unamused look on her face. “It’s a closed set.”

“I’m very creative.”

“And how did you even get a visitors pass?” Her arms unfold then, pointing to the sticker on the right side of her chest with the bold red letters sticking out against the dimly lit soundstage. “You have to be on the guest list to get one of those and I know for a fact you were not.”

“Again, I’m very persuasive,” she responds while nodding her head. “Especially when I need to get my way.” 

“Well,” Lucy says as her hands fall against her hips respectively. Her weight shifts to her left, in the direction of the black folding chair that says _director_ on it in all white, uppercase letters. “I would just love to hear about this creative and persuasive plan of yours to trespass onto private property.”

She can only shake her head, face scrunched up at the loss of words, the way she can’t seem to find anything to counter Lucy’s words. She can only settle on, “I don’t really feel like that’s important.”

“Then, I don’t see it being that important to discuss this proposition of yours further.” Lucy spins her body around, starting to walk in the opposite direction of Fallon; she seems perfectly content with ending their conversation as is and there was _no_ way Fallon was letting this conversation up without a fight. She was _getting_ that movie one way or another and she would do _whatever_ it takes to make sure she secured those rights. 

“I paid the security guard five grand to keep his mouth shut,” Fallon slips out and as soon as the words stop against her tongue, Lucy turns back around to face her with a satisfied smirk gracing her features. “Okay? Are you happy? Now, back to the movie,” she begins. “I think we could really make a great deal together and a really great team.”

“You do realize the only press this streaming company of yours has received in the past, what, six months? Is when you almost burned a soccer stadium down to the ground, right?” Lucy takes two steps towards her, her own heels clicking against the cement floor. “And gave a big middle finger to the country you were trying to broadcast to, correct?”

“Yes, well, you see, this is why I need you,” she begins carefully. “I need _your_ film to help me get this thing off the ground in this country and I think we could be the perfect pair of partners.”

“I’m going to have to decline your offer,” she begins. “Again,” she smirks, really digging the knife in and seemingly taking pleasure in it all at the same time by the look on her face. “As it seems the only person benefiting from this proposition is _you_.”

“No!” She yelps, holding a hand up to stop the blonde from moving. “No! How much do you want?” Fallon reaches into her large white Gucci bag, pulling on the leather casing that held her checkbook, pulling out a pen and making herself ready to write the number Lucy spits out. “Name the amount and it’s yours.”

“Desperation is not a good shade on you,” she says with a grin. “Fallon, was it?” Lucy asks with a twinkle in her eyes. “Hey, Derek!”

“Derek? Who’s Derek?” Fallon asks with confusion laced in her voice, eyebrows furrowing together. She begins looking around for any sight of someone to move towards them, when she starts to see some commotion from her left peripheral vision. “Oh! Is he another producer? Are we gonna sit down and talk some more?” 

“No, he’s my security guard and he’s going to escort you out of here.”

“No, no, no,” she says, letting the words trickle out quickly, just as she sees a man in that same beige suit appear before them. “No, there's no need for that, Lucy! Can’t we just sit and talk it out some more? Maybe in your office or something?”

“You really don’t like the word no, do you?” 

“I refuse to accept it as part of my vocabulary,” she smiles at the blonde. “A lot of people see my tenacity as endearing!”

“Well, unfortunately for you, I am not one of them,” Lucy gives her a smile full of everything but warmth. “Derek, this one right here broke into the studio and trespassed on private property,” she says turning her gaze at Fallon. “I’d say just walk her out, but something tells me she won’t leave without a fight.”

“That’s probably an accurate assumption.”

“Then, I’ll go sit her in the detention area until someone comes to pick her up,” Derek holds his hand out to let Fallon start walking in the direction he points towards. “After you.”

“Thank you, Derek,” Lucy smiles, waving goodbye in her direction as she starts walking away. “Fallon, it’s been a pleasure.” 

* * *

“Liam?”

“Hey, Fal.” She can hear him smile through the other end of her phone. Happy to hear from her as always, if only she wasn’t about to completely through him in a different direction when she told him where she was. “Do you want me to pick you up for lunch?”

“Not exactly,” she bites her lower lip; she can’t deny she’s embarrassed to have to have him come pick her up from her lockup in security, but she trusts him more than anyone else. “Can you come pick me up from Eagle Rock Studios?”

“Eagle Rock Studios?” He asks and she can just see the confused and questioning gaze in his eyes as he says it, even if he’s miles and miles away. She can see the way his lips were pursed together and the way his eyebrows creased together as he tried to piece together the puzzle she was laying out for him. “What are you doing there?”

“I might have trespassed and got detained by security,” she says in a quiet voice. “They won’t let me leave unless someone picks me up.” 

“Fal,” he sighs through the receiving end. “Alright, I’ll be there soon.”

She sits in the dark and dirty room for only about twenty minutes before Derek returns to tell her that her ride has arrived and she’s free to go. She follows the tall, dark skinned, uniformed man out into the main hallways once again, in an out of what feels like a maze until they appear back at the familiar area that she’d wandered into earlier that morning. 

But that’s when things get interesting.

She sees Liam, sure, but she see’s Lucy there, too. And…they’re talking and _laughing_ and smiling at each other in a way she’s immediately repulsed by. She’d been denied streaming rights and now this….this _person_ was going to just flirt with her fiancé right in front of her? She stops in her tracks, Derek moving on without her and he doesn’t even notice that she’s stopped short behind him, watching on as these two giggle and smile at each other like they were, dare she say it…happy? And then they’re leaning in, wrapping each other in a loving embrace; her arms weave tightly around his neck and his come up around her shoulders as he places a kiss on the side of her head. 

Okay, what the hell was going on here?

“Excuse me, that’s my fiancé! Get your hands off of him!”

And then they scurry away from each other like two kids caught in a candy jar, arms staying securely by their sides as they look at each other out of the corners of their eyes. And then they’re laughing. Smiling and giggling and laughing with each other like it’s some sort of inside joke. 

“Do you two know each other or something?”

“Fal,” he smiles in her direction before leaning in to give her a kiss against her cheek. “So, I see you two have met under some interesting circumstance.”

“I’m confused.” The three of them stand in a small circle, Lucy grinning like there’s no tomorrow and Liam just looking at her with that damn smirk; she kind of wants to wipe it right off his face but she loves it too much. “Am I being Punk’d? Is Ashton Kutcher gonna jump out with a camera now?”

Liam only lets out a slight chuckle, looking over in Lucy’s direction who’s expression matches her future husbands identically. “No, Fallon. You’re not being Punk’d.”

She continues to look back and forth between the pair of them. “Is someone gonna tell me what the hell is going on?”

“Fallon, this is Lucy,” he says with his arms beckoning in the blondes direction. “My _sister_.”

She swears she feels her eyes bulge out of her skull, followed by a wave of relief that no, Liam was not cheating on her with this...person. “Sister?”

“I’ve told you about Lucy before,” he says softly, letting his hands rest in the front pocket of his jeans. 

“Yeah, I just…” she trails off quietly. “I guess I’d assumed her last name would be Lowden. Or that she’d be the Devil’s incarnate or something,” she continues while looking at Liam. “You know, being the spawn of Laura Van Kirk and all that.”

“Lucky for me I only inherited about ten percent of the Devil’s genes,” Lucy says looking at Fallon, before turning and sending a smirk in Liam’s direction. “My horns never fully grew in, which I’m thankful for. It would have been a bitch to style my hair around those.”

“It still doesn’t explain your last name .”

“Well, it _was_ Lowden,” Lucy sticks her left hand out towards her, a sparkly diamond shining in the dim lights from up above. “Until I got married.”

“Oh,” Fallon spits out in a single breath. Because _obviously_ that would be the reason her last name wouldn’t be Lowden; she can’t believe she didn’t even let that cross her mind to begin with. “Yeah, I suppose that’d explain it.”

“A smart girl like you couldn’t figure that out?” Lucy chuckles, and despite her being Liam’s sister, she’s pretty sure she’s still not a fan of this woman. “Liam, I must tell you, your future wife is truly one of kind.”

“That she is,” Liam smiles at her and it only forces her lips to curve upwards in response, too. “And I’m very, very lucky to be able to spend the rest of my life with her.”

Fallon finally lets herself walk that final distance to the pair of siblings, grabbing Liam’s hand discreetly and lacing their fingers together by her side. “Wait, did you know who I was this entire time?”

“Well, I don’t live under a rock,” Lucy says with a single humorous huff. “I do see the tabloid covers when I’m standing in line for groceries.”

“Why did you let me make a fool of myself?”

“I saw an opportunity and I took it,” Lucy laughs, but it’s not really _at_ her; it’s all in good fun. She thinks, at least. She still doesn’t have a good read on Liam’s sister. “It was very entertaining,” Lucy continues, nothing but amusement twinkling in her eyes. “For me at least.”

“So,” Fallon squeezes Liam’s hand a little tighter. “Now that we’re technically family, soon-to-be sisters,” Fallon’s shoulders scrunch up, a small glimmer of optimism in her eyes, a tiny feeling of hope growing in the pit of her stomach. “Does that mean you’ll reconsider my deal?”

“No,” Lucy says curtly, without even a notion that she thought about reconsidering. “You’re still just as insane, even if you are my brothers fiancée.” 

“Alright, you two,” Liam drawls. “Let’s play nice.” 

“Liam, I have to say, this wasn’t the way I wanted to let you know I was in town,” Lucy moves her hand up to rest on her brother’s shoulder. _Brother._ It still felt weird that she was meeting this sister of his that she’d heard so much about, but apparently had never bothered to ask for a picture of. She’d probably have saved herself a bit of embarrassment if she had. “I was going to surprise you a little more subtly. Not with a fugitive at hand.”

Fallon jumps in defensively. “Hey!”

“But since someone had other plans,” she looks at Fallon with a slight tilt of her head, eyeing her up and down with her piercing blue eyes; just as sharp of a color as Liam’s, she notices. She should have noticed the similarities sooner. “I thought I’d have a little fun and try to bring you down here to surprise you instead.”

“You mean you kept me detained here for no reason?” Fallon asks, eyes wide and bold. “All for _a little fun_ , as you say, to bring your brother down here for a surprise reunion?”

“Fallon, it’s a movie studio and you’re a grown adult,” Lucy says with an obvious sort of clarity in her tone. “No, there’s no such thing as a ‘detention center,’ here,” Lucy’s head shakes back and forth, accompanied by her light laughter echoing across the soundstage. “If you were really going to be in trouble, I’d have called the police.”

Fallon pulls her hand tangled with Liam’s up, crossing her arms across her chest as she eyes the blonde, trying to assess her carefully. “I’m not sure I like your sister, Liam.”

“You just don’t like that she gives you a little bit of a challenge.” Liam’s soft chuckle is heard from her side. She turns her head to face him, finding him looking at her with welcoming eyes, she can’t help but give him a pouty smile in return. “Fallon’s not used to not being in control. It’s something we’re working on,” Liam leans in to press his lips against her forehead in a lingering kiss. “Together.”

“Well, Liam, now that you’re down here and know I’m in town,” Lucy speaks up clearly. “I’m in Atlanta for the next six months on this shoot,” she states. “And I really, _really_ hope we can try to catch up and reconnect again. Spend some time together just like the old days.”

“I would love that,” Liam says easily, brushing his arm against Fallon’s in the process. “I hate that we lost touch, and all because our family is….insane.”

“All because our _mother_ is insane,” Lucy corrects him; well, Fallon couldn’t disagree with her there. “I’ll probably have to fly home on weekends most of the time to make sure Teddy doesn’t burn the house down,” Lucy continues. “Or that Emily isn’t having a meltdown over whatever the latest drama is.”

Fallon loves the smile that graces Liam’s face at the mention of his niece, he may not talk about his family a lot, or even really _like_ most of them from what he’s told her; but he loved his niece and he’d do anything for her, that much she knew. “How is my girl?”

“She’s a teenager.” Blunt and curt words come out of the blondes’ mouth as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Liam, it’s a nightmare.”

“I miss her.”

“She’ll probably come down at some point during the shoot. Especially seeing as school’s almost out for the summer,” Lucy replies. “We’ll make sure you two get to see each other.”

“Hello?” Fallon drawls the last vowel sound on her word out, higher in pitch for every second she held it. “I’m still here!”

“I know that, babe,” Liam reaches for her hand again, which she happily accepts as their fingers fall into a familiar hold. “You know, we’re getting married in just about a month, too.” Liam tugs at their joined hands, forcing her weight to shift and her body moves a few steps closer to him. “I’d love nothing more for you to come,” he says as she lets her head fall against his shoulder. “Teddy and Emily, too, if they can make it down here. After all, we’re family.”

“I’d love nothing more to come,” Lucy smiles, arms falling across her chest. “Is the Devil herself coming?”

“The Devil herself was disinvited for lying about Conner’s paternity for ten years,” Liam states. “So, no, she will not be coming.”

“Great, then count me and my family in.” Lucy leans herself against a sturdy beam behind her. She looks at Fallon then, a precarious smirk on her lips that causes Fallon to lift her head up from her comfortable place against Liam’s shoulder. “I can only imagine what type of show this wedding will be.”

“Alright, you know what…”

“Fallon,” Liam breathes in his normal warning tone he always uses with her.

Lucy’s smile only turns brighter, though, which only makes the puzzled face on Fallon’s face grow wider. “Oh, I think I like this one. She’s good for you, Liam,” she says. “She’s gonna keep you on your toes.”

“She is indeed,” Liam says as he turns toward her body once more, Fallon letting her eyes wander up slightly at him to find his blue-green eyes staring back at her with all the love in the world. “And I’m very lucky.”

“Now, I know you’re not my number one fan right now but we are about to become family,” Lucy mutters, forcing Fallon’s attention back to the blonde. “And I would like to get to know you. Hell, maybe we can even become friends,” the blonde shrugs. “I do have a _lot_ of embarrassing childhood stories about him,” she teases looking at her brother, Liam’s face falling at the statement. 

“Well,” Fallon utters. “I can’t deny that that does sound enticing.”

“Now, I’d call that progress.” Liam articulates as he looks between both of them. “What do you say, Fal? You two bonding over stupid things I’ve done as a kid?”

“Maybe.”

“Okay, well I’ll take that for now,” Liam squeezes her hand a little before turning to his sister. “Lucy, it’s been great seeing you and I’m so glad you’re going to be around for a while, but I do have a meeting I need to get to if I want to be on time.” Her fiancé looks over at her, with a slight movement of his head to signal them getting out of that place. “So, what do you say we let my sister get back to work and we get out of her hair?”

“Sure.”

Liam’s hand drops from hers before stepping the few feet towards Lucy, wrapping her back up in a tight embrace that matched their earlier hug. “It’s been so great seeing you, Luce. I don’t want us to lose touch like that again.”

When they pull away from each other, Lucy mutters. “No, let’s not,” she smiles easily before looking at Fallon and opening up her arms. “No hug for your new sister?” Despite everything inside of her wishing against it, she leans forward nonetheless and allows the blonde to pull her into a loose hug. Lucy’s chin rests against her shoulder, when she feels her start speaking softly into her ear. “Ask him about our family vacation in Bora Bora and what happened with the dolphin.”

* * *

Fallon walks out of the building with Liam after their goodbyes, his hand laced tightly in her small palm, finally finding peace and silence inside of Liam’s car when the doors close shut behind each other their bodies. He puts his key in the engine, but he doesn’t turn it to rev it up. Instead, he pivots his body to her. “So, that’s Lucy.”

“I’m not sure I like her quite yet,” she ponders aloud. “But she seems to hate Laura as much as I do, so there’s potential there at least.”

“You two are gonna be thick as thieves if you allow yourself to open up to her,” he smirks in her direction. “Trust me, you two are more alike than you realize.”

“Hmm, maybe,” she murmurs quietly when he pushes his lips towards her to press his against hers in a soft kiss. “I do have one question for you though.”

“Alright.” Liam’s hand comes up to tuck a stray stand of hair behind her ear. “Hit me.”

“So, what exactly happened with this dolphin in Bora Bora?”


	2. and so it went

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi.
> 
> it's a been a while, i know. i'm really struggling with inspiration, as the shows been off air for...almost a year now? yeah. anyways, i think i'm still pretty rusty and that this is not up to my usual standards, but i just need to let this go and start building my writing confidence back up again.
> 
> anyways, i did read through this and i think i got most mistakes but if there are any, it's my fault.
> 
> please enjoy some more lucy lowden, as i adore her and hope you love her as much as i do.

Attention to detail wasn’t Lucy Collins’ strongest suit.

It’s weird.

You don’t have to tell her it’s weird, she already knows it’s weird. 

The whole _major motion picture director_ thing would really lean anyone she comes into contact with to believe she’s someone of vast organization and detail. Someone who plans every little detail and is aware of everything and everyone around her. And she _can_ be that way when it comes to her work, to her _career_. When she’s writing a script, when she’s allocating her budget, when she’s trying to cast a project and needs to narrow down her choices. When she’s setting up a scene and notices just the smallest of details out of place - she can see those things.

That’s _easy._

But that simply seems to be where the attention to detail ends for her, because it’s simply not true for other facets of her life.

Quite frankly, she’d argue that she’s kind of a disaster.

An unfocused, distracted disaster.

Especially right now as she tries to set the table for Thanksgiving, the first Thanksgiving she was going to be spending with her brother for the first time in….she couldn’t even tell you how many years. She hadn’t had a holiday meal with her brother since she’d turned her back on her family fifteen years ago, tearing herself away from the lifestyle she’d been born into without much of a choice in the first place. She never could live up to her mother’s standards of being this…sophisticated business woman. She wasn’t this prim and proper, articulate, business-savvy, number-minded woman her mother so desperately wanted her to be.

She’d tried to be that.

She _did._

She _tried_ to get her head into the business program she enrolled in at Columbia to please her family.

And she’s not just saying that - she really, truly did _try_. So much so, that she went for a full year before her father convinced her that following this path wasn’t the path she was meant to be on. That no matter how much Laura wanted her to take over the business and the over VKI Industries, it wasn’t what she wanted and she needed to chase after her own dreams instead.

So, she did.

She quit business school and enrolled in film school at New York University for the fall semester that same year.

She supposes the only silver lining to Colombia was Teddy; meeting her husband was definitely one of those things she was grateful for with her year at Colombia. Because if she’s being honest, she’s not entirely sure how she’d ever lived her life without him by her side before.

He’d been the most kind, gentle, honest and nurturing person who she’d ever been with.

And she’d had plenty of strings or relationships throughout her years.

Guys, girls, she didn’t judge. She didn’t _care._

But for some reason they were always the opposite of what she seemed to need. Those relationship seemed to only bring more turmoil to her life, more trouble if she’s being honest. She thinks she used them as a distraction, to deflect her mind away from the horrible life she had at home, the one where her mother hated her and spent all her time with the family business or her brother - the only child she seemed to really care about.

Or maybe she brought them home to see if her mother would actually _care_. For her to step in and say these people didn’t care about her, not really; that she was self-destructing and if she needed to talk or anything - she’d be here for her.

That never happened though.

And it still didn’t seem to change the fact that she wasn’t the person her mother wanted her to be.

Maybe that’s why her mother was always so disappointed in her.

But that wasn’t important right now.

The important thing was they were back in each others lives and she wasn’t about to let her _mother_ out of all people ruin this for them again, not even this damn silver fork that just didn’t look _right!_ She picks it up again and moves it only millimeters to the left, only to be interrupted by a tiny laugh behind her before she drops it, startled by the distraction.

“Mom, relax,” she hears her daughter laugh with that bright smile she just _knows_ is plastered all over her face, watching on with amusement as she tries to set the table perfectly for the third time.

Okay, _seventh_.

“How long have you been watching me?”

“Long enough to know you’ve moved that fork forty-seven times,” Emily says.

“Okay, I’m smart enough to know that I’ve only moved that fork seven times,” Lucy counters.

“It was nine, actually,” Emily responds. “Why does it matter so much? It’s just Uncle Liam.”

“I know,” Lucy sighs, simply straightening out that stubborn fork once more before finally allowing her body to step away from the round table. “I know, pineapple.”

Her daughters arm comes to rest upon the bare skin of her upper arm, “Then why are you so nervous?”

“Because,” Lucy falls backwards against the couch, long blonde curls falling with her as she sinks into the warm cushion. She opens her arms wide for her daughter to join her, and she does, curling up to her side and she just hopes this is something they’ll always have together - unlike the relationship she had with her own mother. “Your uncle and I didn’t really talk for a long while. And sure, there wasn’t any bad blood between us or anything, I just want it to go well. I want us to be able to do this more often,” she continues. “Plus the last time I saw him, a few months ago, I was a complete drunken mess.”

“But it’s _Liam,_ ” the tiny blonde, who wasn’t even so tiny anymore now that she gets a good look at her, counters back at her. “ _Liam._ You know he doesn’t care about these things. About how perfect things look or any of that. He just wants to spend time with us.”

“You’re right.”

“And _you_ don’t even care about this stuff either,” Emily says, leaning her weight even further against her. She’s so glad she has _this._ This…bond with her daughter that her mother never even bothered to try to form with her. She was never what Laura wanted her to be and ever since Emily was born, she’d sworn to do everything in her power to make sure her daughter was love and accepted in a way she never was. She never wanted anyone in their entire lives to feel the way Laura had always made her feel. “What is it you’ve always said? ‘ _Life’s too short to give a fuck,’_ right?”

“Language! God, where did you pick up such a habit?” Parenting mode could flick on at the switch of a light when she needed it to, though. “But I suppose you’re right. I give some pretty fucking good advice, huh?”

Her daughter just eyes her suspiciously, those sweet blue eyes that matched the shade of her’s to a tee, glistening with excitement and wonder at the prospect of her uncle coming over for the holiday; she’d been talking about it for weeks now. “Do you _really_ wonder who I’ve picked cursing up from or are you just messing with me?”

“Your father and I hardly curse around you.”

“Mom,” she deadpans.

“We don’t!” Lucy exclaims, even if she knows there’s no way out of this. She had a little bit of a bad habit of cursing…anywhere. She knows it’s a problem, but she can’t bring herself to really care, either. “If anything, we know your father is the one who curses more.”

“You literally just….” Emily looks at her with that pro-postured look and she can’t help but smirk as her daughter searches for the words. “You know what? That doesn’t matter. What I’m saying is….your brother doesn’t care where the fork is placed on the table,” Emily continues. “He only cares that _you’re_ here.”

“When did you get to be so insightful?”

“I may have learned from the best.”

“Me?”

“Oh,” Emily shakes her head. “No, I meant dad.”

Lucy feigns shock, mouth agape as she spins around and her spot to get a look at her giggling daughter. “You little punk!”

“Stop, stop! I’m kidding! It’s you, I get it all from you!” She stops when she hears the words she wanted, her daughter taking a few moments to regain a normal breathing pattern. “What time are they coming over?”

“They should be here any moment,” Lucy says looking at the clock. “Wanna help me finish getting ready?”

* * *

It felt a little weird driving over to his sisters.

It felt even weirder that they didn’t stay _with_ his sister when she apparently lived in a penthouse suite at her apartment building, with plenty of room to house all of them, but she’s not going to push him and question it. Maybe he’s still nervous about the new relationship they’re building, maybe he’s not ready for that step yet, maybe it’s something else entirely.

Maybe he did it for _her._

Always being selfless that husband of hers and putting her needs before his own.

He probably thought she wouldn’t be ready for that yet, wouldn’t want to go into his sisters house, who she still didn’t know _that_ well, and stay the night in a home she wasn’t comfortable in.

“So,” Fallon says in attempt to break the silence. Not that it was uncomfortable or anything, it was anything _but,_ but still - she missed his voice. “Should I expect a second version of the Lucy we had the pleasure of spending time with the last time we saw her?”

“Well,” Liam says. “My mother won’t be there today so she should be considerably less drunk than she was that night.”

“Not that I’d complain if she was,” Fallon says with a laugh, memories floating around in her head then of that night. “Your sister was hilarious.”

“Don’t encourage her, please,” her husband says with a slight laugh. “She’ll just use that as an excuse to drink more.” 

“You can’t deny that was the highlight of our entire New York trip,” Fallon says.

“I suppose that was the moment I laughed most,” Liam says with a look in her direction. She feels her mind start to wander, thinking of all the ways today could go wrong. She knows its ridiculous but she can’t help it. She’d always fall to the worst conclusion possible before considering the ways everything could go right. She feels his hand slip onto her thigh then, drawing her eyes back to his. “What’s that look for?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugs, hand slipping over his. The warmth from his body soothes her instantly, but she’d never tell him he had that kind of power over her. He probably knew, honestly, but on the off chance he didn’t, she was going to that information to herself. “Just a little nervous I guess.”

“You don’t need to be nervous, babe.”

“I know,” she says shyly. “I know. And I like your sister, I think she’s a riot but this is important to you. _She’s_ important to you, so she it’s important to me, y’know? I don’t want to screw it up for you.”

“I get it,” his hand squeezes against her fingers. “It means a lot that you want this to go well, too.”

“I do,” she says quietly, watching the skyline breeze by in the distance out her window. “I really do.”

“You two got along just fine last time you were together,” he notes.

“True,” she agrees. “She still made a fool of me in Atlanta on the set of her movie and I’m not quite sure I forgive her for that yet.”

“Okay, but that was hilarious,” her husband laughs. “She got you good there.”

She punches him on his upper arm. “You’re such an ass.”

“Honestly, Fal,” Liam says softly. “I think you two have more in common than you even realize.’

“How do you figure that?”

“Well,” he starts. “For starters, I know the both fo you pretty well. I have a sixth sense about these kinds of things.”

“Oh, really?” She inquires. “Is this like a Bruce Willis’ kind of thing you’ve got going on?”

“No, I’m much more handsome than him, but I’m impressed with the fact you know the movie.”

“Shut up, Liam.”

But she laughs anyways, leaning into his side in the back of their limo. His arm falls around her and squeezes against her shoulder, holding her close. They fall into that comfortable silence again, the white lines rushing along the highway and the feeling of crowded buildings starting to fall in around them as they dove further into the city. She lets herself get comfortable, eyes falling closed against him as his thumb rubbed against her jacket in small patterns, soothing her budding nerves as he always was until his soft voice whispered into her ear.

“Plus,” the word drags out on his tongue on that vowel sound. “We’re forgetting the most important thing that you two have in common.”

She eyes him suspiciously. “And what’s that?”

“You both are absolutely crazy about me.”

* * *

“Uncle Liam!”

The door swings open before they even have a chance to knock, a tiny blonde sticking out behind the door with her shoulder length hair. Liam’s niece, no doubt, who she’s heard nothing but great things about from her husband during their entire time together. He’d described her as an artsy teen with an insane drive to one day own her own art studio or something of the sort - eager to follow in the direction of both of her mom and dad all the same.

“Emily!” His voice bellows a light laugh when she jumps into his arms, squeezing him tight around his waist. She stands off to the side, feeling slightly uncomfortable with her presence when she really doesn’t know this family. She only knew Lucy from her brief stint in Atlanta, their wedding, and that wild night at the Gala just months ago; they’d barely been able to get to know each other because she’d been so busy with filming her movie when she was in The Peach State. And the Gala…well, she was inebriated enough that Fallon was certain she didn’t remember much of that night. “My goodness, you have grown _so_ much since I last saw you.”

“I miss you,” she steps back, arms unwinding from around his center. “You need to come to New York more often."

The two of them fall into an easy conversation as Fallon finally lets her eyes wander up into the apartment they’d stumbled into only moments ago. It’s vast and wide open, just like she’d expect of a New York City penthouse apartment to be. Bright colors and an open concept, the living room and kitchen bleeding into one another without any barriers. There’s floor to ceiling windows made out of glass that look out into the city, the skyline illuminated by all the lights in the city.

And despite all that, despite the coldness that New York City apartments could radiate from all the modern architecture and open floor plans, this place still felt….like a _home._ It felt _lived_ in. There was a Monopoly board game open on the coffee table, houses and hotels scattered across. There was a few canvases on the floor, set onto a few easels with dozens of different water color paints laying around - Emily’s doing no doubt. There’s boots on the floor, a few pieces of clothing laid out in a scrunched up mess on the back of the couch.

Was this what a family home was supposed to feel like? She longs for the past to change, for the life she had at home to be exceptionally better than the cards she was dealt. But that was the past and she couldn’t change that; she could only move forward and create better memories with Liam and her new life. 

With Lucy and Emily.

Her new family.

“Hi, Fallon!”

The little voice takes her by surprise, so bold and unafraid to speak up and welcome her into the conversation. She had to be honest she was fine sitting off to the side pretending like she didn’t exist, but she appreciates that they want to make her feel welcome. “Hey, Em.”

“She’s technically your _aunt_ Fallon,” Liam smirks in her direction. She’s not sure she’s entirely comfortable with being someones _aunt_ yet, considering she’d only met Emily at their wedding. And that was only briefly at that, a hello and goodbye before being whisked away by the hundreds of other guests in attendance on her special day. And of course, Emily was lovely and friendly and as bubbly as can be, just as Liam had described her all along.

But she still didn’t feel like she knew the teen that well yet.

“You don’t have to call me aunt Fallon if you don’t want to,” Fallon says, shifting the weight from her right to left leg.

“I kind of liked the idea of having an aunt!”

“Oh, well,” Fallon trails off. “Auntie Fallon works, too.”

“Is that my brother I hear?” Lucy’s familiar voice rings out from around the corner before she seems the blonde’s figure appear, two hands close to her left ear trying to fasten her an earring securely to her lobe. “Liam, Fallon,” she nods in their direction. “Welcome to New York.”

“Hey, Luce.”

Lucy bends down to the ground in her outfit of choice - a sequined black, one piece jumper - to pick up her heels off the floor and slip them on her feet as she speaks. “Please excuse the mess, your niece doesn’t understand the concept of picking up after herself yet.”

“She’s thirteen,” Liam says with a slight ruffle to his nieces blonde locks, a light laugher escaping her as he does it. “Give her a break.”

“I absolutely will not give her a break.”

“That’s why we have a housecleaner, mom,” the teenage blonde rolls her eyes and Fallon can’t help herself from laughing a tiny bit at her tone. Liam elbows her slightly into her side, trying to not encourage his niece’s behavior no doubt. 

“No, we have a housecleaner because your mother has a crazy job and can’t keep up with her own life on top of working so much,” Lucy argues back with a firm look painted on her face. “She does _not_ come to clean up your mess and stray you away from learning some responsibilities for yourself.”

“Okay, okay, I can take a hint,” Emily’s response is anything but happy; more of a surrender to just say whatever will make her mother happy. “I’ll pick up my mess.”

“You’re awfully quiet tonight,” the older blonde pivots in the newly married couples’ direction, specifically Fallon.

“I’m…sorry?”

“Right, so should we open a bottle of rum now? Perhaps a bottle of champagne now?”

“No rum,” Liam says off to the side of her. He’s immediately met with a scowl from his light-haired sister. “We do not need a repeat of the Gala.”

“Excuse you, I’ll be drinking whatever I damn well please,” Lucy sneers towards her brother. “Fallon, would you like a south-side? I bought gin specially for you,” she says stepping towards the kitchen. “Nasty stuff, I still don’t know how you drink it.”

“I’d _love_ a south-side, thank you, Lucy,” Fallon nods, stepping in tow behind the blonde.

“And I’m outnumbered,” Liam says, following behind them nonetheless. “I hope your not picking up on your mother’s habits, Em.”

“She’s only picking up the best ones,” Lucy says. “Which is my entire personality, if we’re being honest.”

The smaller blonde has no interest in the drinks that are starting to be prepared against the quartz counter top, changing the subject with her next words. “I can’t wait to show you my oil painting I’m working on for class, Uncle!”

“Well, come on then and take me to it,” Liam says, already meandering his way out of the kitchen. “We can let these two drink away together.”

Lucy slides a finished south-side in her direction, mint floating at the top of the crystal glass; extra mint at that. “How did you know I liked extra mint?”

“Please, I’m incredible,” Lucy says while she muddles her own mint in her shaker. “I know everything. Just ask my husband.”

“Where _is_ your husband?”

“Oh, he tends to work on this holiday,” she says pouring a few ounces of the white rum into the shaker, filling it with ice before shaking it vigorously. “Not really a big deal, honestly. I’m used to it by now,” “Plus it means I get to spend the entire day with the one bright spot in my life.”

“She seems like a great kid,” Fallon notes, honestly.

“She’s the best,” Lucy says, sticking a straw in her beverage before taking a sip. “She got that from me. Don’t let my husband tell you otherwise.”

“Noted,” Fallon laughs, just as the timer on the oven goes off indicating their meal was finished.

“Emily, get your ass in here for dinner,” the blonde yells before opening the oven, a wave of warmth covering her instantly. “Shit, maybe I do curse a lot.”

* * *

She can’t deny how nice it is to have her brother here celebrating the holiday with her.

And everything is going _so_ well she almost can’t believe it, considering her nerves had been through the roof all day before her brother and Fallon showed up. It’s almost like it’s going too well, like something is inevitably going to blow it all up and turn the whole day into a disaster.

But…no.

All she can hear are forks being scraped across the plates and laughter from the joke Emily just told.

“Alright, Em, I’ll hand it to you,” Fallon says, her fork against her plate once more scooping up more potatoes. “That was a good one.”

“I told her that one!” Lucy interjects. “My kid takes all my jokes and passes them off as her own.”

“Smart,” Liam winks at her daughter and _oh,_ she’ll get him back for that one.

The forks start to slow, plates starting to become barren of food as the weight of their dinner starts to settle into fatigue when the doorbell rings seemingly out of nowhere. It’s weird, cause she’s not expecting any visitors today, but it’s also not out of the ordinary for Teddy to send her some flowers on the holiday when he’s locked up in his office.

So, she doesn’t question it much.

Emily volunteers to get it, jumping up immediately with a quick and rushed, “I’ll get it!”

She pays no attention to who’s behind the door until she hears the familiar voice.

“Hello, dear.”

The very much unwelcome familiar voice, followed by the words that made her realize this nightmare was just beginning.

“…oh,” she hears her daughter murmur.

Lucy feels her chest constrict, eyes closing as she does her best to take a deep breath. A million memories swirl in her mind, angry words being shouted across the room on the fateful night that everything went downhill and past the point of no return. She remembers the last time she saw her only months ago, hurling words at her and making a total ass of herself in front of dozens of people….and for what? Her mother didn’t care about her and her mother never would.

And she sure as hell wasn’t going to let her mother hurt her own daughter the way she’s hurt her.

“Emily, no,” Lucy says as soon as she sees her mother step foot into the home she was most definitely _not_ welcome in. “Stay away.”

“Is this how you’ve raised your daughter?” Laura Van Kirk looks at her daughter from her spot at the door, back to her granddaughter who’s trying to make sense of everything. Who Lucy had tried so very hard to keep out of the loop with just how bad things in her family really were. Laura looks back up at _her_ again, a look of utter disgust that she’d unfortunately become all too accustomed to since she was a kid, the only look Laura seemed capable of looking at her with. “To come and go as you please? She’s not a dog, dear.”

“Emily, go to your room, pineapple,” Lucy says with a small glance to her daughter. Emily opens her mouth to object but quickly changes her mind about speaking, turning away and heading up the stairs. “What the _hell_ are you doing in my house?”

“I came for Thanksgiving dinner,” Laura says with ease as if it’s obvious. “What else would I be here for on Thanksgiving day?”

“You weren’t invited.”

“But we’re family, dear.” Laura says walking into the house further, smiling at the two other adults sat at the table. “Hi, Liam. Fallon,” she responds less than courteously to the second.

“Wicked witch of New York,” Fallon says

“Get out,” Lucy sneers in the strongest tone she could manage; she wasn’t letting her mother ruin this special day for her and her brother.

Laura looks at her, a fake sadness lingering behind her eyes but she knows better than to buy it - it’s all an act and she’s not falling for it. “But don’t you want to have dinner with me?”

“I thought the fifteen years that had gone by without me speaking to you made that pretty clear.”

“We spoke a few months ago.”

“I’d hardly call that speaking,” she scoffs.

“You’re right,” Laura agrees. “That was you crashing the party and making a fool of yourself, having to have your husband come pick you up because you were too drunk to stand up on your own two feet. How quickly I forget.”

“Get out.”

“But we’re family, Lucy,” Laura says, lingering next to the dining room table where Fallon and Liam sit awkwardly. Their eyes dart back and forth between the two of them as they speak, both looking like they should step in and put an end to this before it gets worse.

“We’re not,” she says. “Family doesn’t do half the things you’ve done to me in my life.”

“Okay, okay,” Liam steps in, standing up on his feet. “There’s no need to fight.”

“There absolutely is reason to fight,” Lucy says. “She needs to leave, she’s not welcome here.”

“Okay, mom,” Liam starts in that sweet and soft voice he’s always able to maintain. Even when things are tough, he’s able to control his emotions and keep his cool and she envies that - she wishes she could keep her emotions at bay, especially now when she’d do anything to get this woman out of her house. “Lucy’s asked you to leave a few times and I think you should respect what she’s saying.”

“I want to stay, my dear boy.”

“Get the _fuck_ out of my house.”

“I’m just here to see my boy,” Laura says, confirming all her suspicions. She wasn’t here to see her or even her granddaughter, she was here to see one person and one person only: Liam.

“Ah, there it is,” Lucy says quietly. She hates the tightness that starts to form in her chest; she doesn’t want the fact that her mother hates her to hurt, considering she hates her the same amount, maybe more, but _damn,_ it still hurts. “See? She doesn’t want anything to do with me. It’s _you_ she wants to see.”

“I just want to spend this holiday with my only son,” Laura says with a wicked grin. “I saw you were in town and thought I’d stop by when I found out it was here you’d be.”

“I’m sorry, but your daughter is _right_ there,” Fallon interrupts, standing up then. “It’s pretty shitty to sit her and just _shit_ on her like you’re doing. Do you not want want to see her either?”

“Not particularly.”

“Look, I know you don’t like me. That’s fine, cause quite frankly, I don’t really care and the feeling is most definitely mutual,” Fallon says. Her eyes find the brunettes in the tension filled room, offering a small smile when she realizes Liam and Laura are preoccupied with the words Fallon’s saying. “But that’s your daughter.”

“My _daughter_ is a disgrace to her family’s name,” Laura sneers with an evil twinkle in her eyes. “She’s the reason your father’s dead, Liam.”

“Mom, that’s…”

“It’s true,” Laura says. “Liam, you have to believe me. You have to know what you’re getting yourself into by letting her back into your life.”

“She’s not the reason dad’s gone,” Liam says with a look directly at her. “Dad’s gone for reasons that were beyond any of our control.”

“The reason was your sister,” she bites back. “Because she dropped out of business school, because she wound up pregnant without a college degree or a husband.”

“Mom,” Liam shakes his head with a sharp voice. “Lucy is not to blame for what happened to dad.”

Lucy finds she’s unable to speak; maybe it’s because her daughter is down the hall probably eavesdropping in on the conversation and she doesn’t want to drag her into her mess anymore than she already is. She’s old enough to know she and her mother aren’t on good terms, have never been on good terms and probably would never see eye to eye. She’s not dragging her into any further though. She’s keeping her away, far away, not willing to risk Laura doing the same to her that she’s done to her or filling her mind with useless nonsense about her own mother that wasn’t even true.

“Liam, baby, I just wanted to come see you,” Laura says.

“I’m not in New York to see you this time,” he says. “I’m visiting my sister, and I wish you wouldn’t try to get between that. My relationship with Lucy means a lot to me and I’m not going to let you get in the middle of that like you’ve done before.”

“I can tell I’m not wanted here,” the dramatic voice escapes the woman who brought her into this world. “So, I suppose I will just leave you two alone.”

“Great, bye.”

Laura steps forward to hug her brother, but he steps backward and doesn’t accept the arms she has open for him to walk into. She looks hurt, and _good,_ Lucy thinks. She deserves it. After the hell she’d put her through all her life, Laura deserved to feel anything close to what she felt, too. The tension that lingers in the room is so high she’s certain a chainsaw wouldn’t even be able to penetrate it.

Laura lingers for a moment, two moments, waiting to see if one of her children would call back to her and tell her to stay, but the silence is defeating around them. You could hear a pin drop in the room, she’s certain the four of them had stopped breathing all together. The door creaks open before the body slips out, a small click indicating the door had shut, followed by the sounds of high heels walking in the hallway outside.

It’s the moment Lucy lets out the breath she’s certain she’d been holding since she heard her mothers voice echo around her.

“Are you okay?”

It’s Fallon.

But she can’t speak.

She feels the way her eyes start to burn, the way she’s reaching the point of no return. She’s anything but weak and she’ll be damned if she lets these two see her this way. So, she does what she does best and turns her back to them, running off in the direction of her bedroom, letting the door slam behind her as she crawls against her sheets.

* * *

The door slam echos throughout the entire penthouse.

Fallon jumps slightly in her seat, processing the words and hurtful remarks that were just hurled across the room, mother to daughter without so much as a second thought. It’s almost as if Laura actually….no, she couldn’t have truly meant those words, right? That was…that was her _daughter._ She couldn’t have truly felt the worst, meant those words…and to say them all in front of her only granddaughter?

That was another form of low that wasn’t even surprised Laura had the ability to reach.

Still, she can’t imagine how much pain Lucy’s in. To hear those words again from the person who brought you into this world….she can’t imagine how that felt. She knew her and Alexis’s relationship was tattered and parts of their relationship would never be able to be mended but this….this made her realize maybe she didn’t have the worst mother in the world.

“I’m gonna go talk to her,” Liam says with a sudden movement.

“No,” Fallon says with a push to Liam’s shoulder to keep him planted against his seat. “I’ll go talk to her.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, Fallon says standing up. “Yeah, I got this.”

* * *

“Hey.” It’s Fallon’s soft and tentative voice that breaks her inner monologue she’d been fighting for the last five minutes. The one that told her she wasn’t good enough, that she was _never_ good enough and was never going to _be_ good enough. Because if she was, her mother would have accepted her and loved her and respected her and not shoved her to the side like she was never truly wanted. “Can I come in?”

“I guess so,” Lucy shrugs. She uses the back of her palm to wipe the few tears that managed to escape the corners of her eyes, despite the fight she put up to keep them inside. She hates the moisture she finds there, that even after all the shit her mother had put her through she still craves having a mother who loved her. 

“I’m sorry.”

“For _what?”_ Lucy asks with a shift towards the brunette. She knows her eyes are all red and blotchy, but if they are Fallon doesn’t comment on it; she appreciates it. “You didn’t do anything.”

“I know,” she begins softly. “I’m just…I’m sorry for the way your mother treats you. You don’t deserve that.”

Lucy scoffs, “Yeah, well, try telling her that.”

“The way she belittled you tonight,” Fallon says as she lets her feet guide her further into the room. “Putting on this whole show in front of Emily especially….that was low.”

“I don’t want to be that parent that has to keep their child away from their grandparents,” Lucy shakes her head back and forth, feeling more tears spring to her eyes at the mention of the one thing that’s been a bright spot in her entire life - her daughter. “But…I don’t trust her, you know? I _can’t_ trust her with my kid and I’m not letting my daughter go through the hell I’ve had to go through.”

There’s a silence that encompasses them, but it’s not uncomfortable. Lucy kind of wishes Fallon would keep talking, it’s the one thing that’s kept her rapid thoughts under control since Laura had finally stormed out the door. She feels Fallon’s weight settle beside her on her bed, her sister-in-law tentatively sitting close to her, thighs touching just slightly.

“You know,” Fallon begins again, with much of a relief to the dark thoughts threatening to take over Lucy’s mind again. “I don’t know how much Liam’s talked to you about me or my family, but I don’t have the best relationship with my mother either.”

Lucy doesn’t mean for the icy tone to escape her. “I bet yours didn’t try to pretend you didn’t exist for your entire life.”

“Well, no. Not exactly,” Fallon says. Lucy’s grateful that she didn’t comment on her tone, she didn’t mean for it to come out; she was just _hurt._ She was sick of feeling _hurt._ “But my parents fought a _lot_ when I was growing up,” she continues. “And…the family business was always the most important. The business came first. Family came second. Hell, I don’t even know if family was second in line, we might have been fourth or fifth."

“Yeah, I know that life,” Lucy scoffs. “It’s a sad life.”

“And, I mean, at one point….she just left,” Fallon says, Lucy’s head turning towards her then as she watched her speak. “She totally ghosted us. She left me, she left my brother. She left my _dad,_ ” Fallon continues. “I blame myself for it, really. I think others blamed me for it too, which is probably why I spent so many years in therapy but that’s besides the point,” Fallon pauses a moment and Lucy can’t find the words to respond yet so she just lets her sister-in-law continue. “I would be up all night, thinking all day about everything I did and everything I said, wondering what I could have done differently to make her stay with us. I thought if I could have changed something about me then we could have been a family. Stupid right?”

“It’s not stupid at all,” Lucy says.

“She was gone for eleven years,” Fallon continues. “I didn’t hear a word she breathed until she showed up at my grandfather’s funeral some years ago.” Fallon stops for a moment again and Lucy wonders if she’s done, but the sharp intake of air Fallon takes tells her she’s not. “And then after all that went down, I found out she’d kept in touch with my brother the entire time she’d been gone, without as much as sending me a birthday card.”

“Family fucking sucks,” Lucy says. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“No,” Fallon says strongly. “It’s okay. I’m…in a better place now.”

“He’s lucky he has you,” Lucy says with a smile. “Really, I mean that.”

“I know you do,” Fallon smiles back. “But I think it’s me who’s lucky.”

“If you say so,” Lucy shrugs. “Quite frankly, I wouldn’t be able to tolerate him so I commend you for dealing with him.”

Fallon can’t help but laugh. “I just…I’m telling you all this because I want you to know I understand where you’re coming from. And, yeah, maybe our situations aren’t exactly the same and Laura is _far_ worse to you than anything I’ve ever had to go though growing up, it’s just…I want you to know that I feel for you. I understand what you’re going through and what you’re feeling to some degree,” Fallon stops again.

It’s weird for Lucy, because they’d only met a few times now. And sure they got along just fine and they seemed to like each other well enough and all but they hadn’t really got a chance to know each other yet. They hadn’t really had a moment to bond just as… _sisters_ yet. Their few meetings so far consisted of Liam being a third wheel and the conversations not getting that deep.

Something shifted tonight.

“And if you ever need someone to talk to about all of this….” Fallon holds her hand out for her to take. “I’m here and willing to listen.”

“And if you ever need any embarrassing stories of your husband to hold over his head as blackmail,” Lucy says. She feels significantly lighter than she did only minutes ago - no, she knows the wound will never heal but she has other people in her life who care about her, who want to spend time with her. That had to count for something, right? “I’m here and willing to share every single detail you never wish you asked for.”

* * *

Fallon makes her way back out to Liam and Emily, both sitting against the plush sofa watching a Christmas movie on the big screen TV that filled up pretty much the whole wall. Liam stands immediately to reach for her hands, pulling her down beside him on the couch.

“How is she?”

“I think she’s okay,” Fallon nods, leaning into him. “We talked.”

“Good,” he says quietly. She sees that it’s How The Grinch Who Stole Christmas that’s playing, a very green Jim Carrey laughing as he makes a prank call to the Who’s. “I’m proud of you, you know.”

She nestles against him further, leaning into the hollow of his neck. “Yeah?”

“Yeah, you didn’t have to do that,” he says, finger twirling in her hair. She loves that feeling, the way he makes small little curls and how the feeling instantly soothes her. “You didn’t have to go in there and be the one to talk with her. But you did and I’m proud of you.”

“Well, your sister means a lot to you, therefore she means a lot to me,” Fallon responds quietly, dong her best to not interrupt the movie Emily seems so invested in. “Turns out we both have something in common. Deep rooted issues with our mothers.”

“Thank you,” he says softly, suddenly looking around to find the blonde who’s nowhere to be found. “Where is she?”

“She said to give her a minute,” Fallon shrugs. “She wanted to find something. I don’t know, she said she’d meet me out here.”

It’s only a moment later that Lucy makes her way back into the room with the rest of them, carrying a large cardboard box along with her. She sets it against the glass table in front of her brother and sister-in-law, a conspicuous look brewing in her eyes that already has Fallon smirking.

“What’s that?” Liam asks while pointing to the object.

“Oh, just a little something I thought would be nice for Fallon to see,” Lucy says, kneeling down against the soft carpet below her feet.

“I don’t get it.”

“Who wants to see some embarrassing photos of Liam as a baby?”


End file.
